With a 4-3 victory over the Concordia Stingers on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 28) at the Ed Meagher Arena in Montreal, the No. 8 nationally-ranked York University Lions men's hockey team recorded its ninth win of the regular season.
 
With the victory, the Lions improved to 9-3-3 on the year and have already equalled their win total from all of last season, with 12 games still remaining on the schedule.
 
In the opening minutes of the contests, both teams were quick to grab a goal. York's Colton Vannucci (High River, Alta.) was first to open the scoring at 2:12 off of assists from Greg Milner (Watford, Ont.) and Mitch VanTeeling (Brandon, Man.).
 
Soon after, Concordia's Olivier Hinse found an equalizer at 4:06 after the puck was shared between Jessyko Bernard and Curtis Gass, and later at 17:38 Hinse capitalized again off of an opportunity in front of net that was set up by Bernard and Scott Oke.
 
Hinses' two goals in the first period added to his nine-goal total this season and gave his team the 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
 
In the second period however, the Lions were able to get themselves back into the game.
 
Tyler Mort (Keswick, Ont.) claimed his third goal of the season and tied up the score after pouncing off of a short handed chance at 5:32. The assists were credited to Derek Sheppard (Ajax, Ont.) and Kyle Campbell (Halifax).
 
Then nearing the end of the period, at 13:18, Milner edged out a Lions' lead from a power play advantage. After the puck was passed between Vannucci and Justin Larson (Buckhorn, Ont.), Milner hit the puck home for his seventh goal of the season.
 
In the third period, the Lions extended their lead to 4-2 after VanTeeling was able to find Vannucci in a promising position on the ice for a goal at 8:38. It was Vannucci's fourth goal of the season.
 
At 19:43 Hinse squeezed out a goal to record the hat trick and narrow the score to 4-3. Matt Boudreau and Luca Ciampini assisted him, but their efforts couldn't stop the Lions from pulling away with the win.  
 
In the upcoming week the Lions will return home and prepare for a game that will be played against the Laurier Golden Hawks at Canlan Ice Sports Arena. Puck drop will be at 7pm on Friday (Dec. 4) in their second last home contest of the fall season.